
THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 



OF 



STONEWALL JACKSON. 



By JAMES POWER SMITH, D. D., 
Captain and A. D. C. Staff of General Jackson. 



Delivered at the Inauguration of the Stonewall Jackson 

Memorial Building, Virginia Military Institute, 

June 23d, 189V. 



PUBLISHED BY THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE. 



LYNCHBURG, VA. 
J. P. Bell Company, Book, Job and Commercial Peintkrs. 

1897. 



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5120 



The Religions Cliaracter of Stonewall Jackson. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It is not an accident that in the impressive exercises with which you 
open this building, there is a place assigned for the religious character 
of him whose name is here to abide. 

It is not only that any study of his character and career would be 
incomplete, but that it would be wholly unphilosophical and untruth- 
ful, without a statement of that which lay so effectively in his heart, 
and covered so entirely all that we know of him. It was Thomas Car- 
lyle who said, "A man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him." 
And more than of any man of renown of modern times, it is true of 
Jackson, that his religion was the man himself. It was not only that 
he was a religious man, but he was that rare man among men to whom 
religion was everything. 

It is a remarkable fact that Oliver Cromwell, the great Puritan 
protector, of whom Thackeray spoke as "our great king," whose 
whole career has been the study of historians and critics, is in our day 
receiving a final study in his personal religion. Eminent critics are 
telling us that the campaigns of Jackson will be the study and admi- 
ration of military schools for centuries to come. However true that may 
be, of this we are sure, the religion of Stonewall Jackson will be the 
chief and most effective way into the secret springs of the character and 
career of the strange man, who as the years go by is rising into the 
ranks of the great soldier -saints of history — Saint Louis of France, 
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, Oliver Cromwell of England, Stonewall 
Jackson of America. 

In the brief address I am to make today; in the hurried sketch I 
am to attempt of the inner springs of life and power in the story of 
Stonewall Jackson, I cannot be unmindful of the laws of heredity, and 
the strong inbred qualities that came in the blood of a stalwart race. 
Nor can I forget the discipline of the hard life of his childhood, a 
homeless orphan boy drifting from place to place, and in the tenderest 
years of youth, unprotected and exposed, seeking his bread as he could 
find it. Certainly, I must not fail to recall that a mother of piety and 
love left him a little child of seven years, with nothing of religious 
instruction, no mother's knee at which to say his childhood's prayer, 



nothing to gentle and refine, nothing to restrain and guide him into 
an upright manhood, save the one unfading memory of that mother's 
love and parting blessing. Running away from a harsh and unloving 
home, with an older brother boating on the Ohio, camping in hunger 
and cold, riding an uncle's horses on a race-course, attempting tlie 
rude work of a country constable in the mountains of West Virginia, 
there was absolutely no instruction, no counsel, and no ruling authority 
in all the young years of growth and formation. 

It is marvelous indeed that out of such a youth, he came with purity 
and integrity, truthful, honest, modest, and writing in rude characters 
that first brave maxim of life, ' ' You may be whatever you resolve to 
be." I can find no mark of conscious religious sentiment in all this; 
though I see plainly the directing hand of a Divine providence fitting 
for a short life as rare and disciplined within, as it was brilliant and 
heroic without. 

The thoughts of religion began to stir in his heart under the influ- 
ence of a pious friend at West Point, and were felt with some power 
when, a young lieutenant at Fort Hamilton, he was, of his own desire, 
baptized into the Christian faith, by an Episcopal clergyman. They 
were moving efiectually upon heart and conscience, when in the City 
of Mexico, applauded and promoted for conspicuous bravery, with a 
rare candor and open-heartedness he sought instruction of a bishop of 
the Catholic church, of whom he was accustomed to speak with the 
most sincere respect. The truths of the religion of Christ found a 
deep and abiding place in his heart, in the more quiet and regulated 
conditions of his first years in Lexington, when under the ministry of 
the venerable Presbyterian pastor, Dr. Wm. S. White, he made a 
public confession of his personal faith in Christ. Acknowledging his 
ignorance of religious truth, he came with entire candor and simplicity 
to be taught as a little child. The truths he heard were not wholly 
clear to him, and some things he antagonized with an honesty and 
courage that were most admirable in the sincere seeker after truth. 
Only through the long process of study, reflection and prayer, was he 
led into a clear vision of the great essential truths of evangelical re- 
ligion. As they came out, like stars fixed in the firmament of his 
upward gaze, he bowed his head and his heart and gave them their 
rightful authority over all his manhood. 

The inspired Psalmist declares of the wicked man, ' ' God is not in all 
his thoughts. ' ' The supreme fact in the character of Jackson was, that 
far beyond any man of whom we read, ''God was in all his thoughts.'' 



It was not one truth or another about God, or one feature of our 
Christian religion, rather than another, that became real and dominant 
to him; but God, God himself, the living, personal and present God, 
became the one trauscendant fact, that dwelt in all his thoughts, and 
possessed his whole being. It was not God only as the surpassingly 
glorious subject of reflection, or as living and working and revealing 
himself in nature and in history, nor as partially known by Hebrew 
prophets in the childhood of humanity; but God revealed in Christ, 
the God of law and love, whose law is love, and whose love leads back 
to law. 

I am careful to say this, that I may also say, the supreme thought 
of God gave unity to his religion and unity to his life. As it went 
down into the hidden nature within, it possessed the whole man with 
unwonted power, and made him one and the same, a man of God 
within and without. Unto a personal and present God he gave the 
undivided faith of his heart. He acknowledged his supreme authority 
as maker and redeemer over every part of his being, and every breath 
of his life, and to that authority he bowed his will implicitly. ' ' He 
came nearer putting God in God's place," said Dr. Stiles, " than any 
man we have ever known." And in this he put himself in the one 
rightful place to which man belongs, the humblest and the most 
majestic, the strongest, the safest, and the happiest that man can ever 
occupy. 

It gave simplicity and directness and personal humility in an un- 
common degree. All things were viewed in the light of the supreme 
fact of God. All things were referred to it. All things were sub- 
mitted to the rulings of that fact. It covered all other facts, all other 
truth, it ruled all action, it answered all questions of duty, and made 
all his life and service one and simple forever. 

How inevitably came his humility. He owed all to God, all that 
he was, all he had attained, all he had accomplished in class-room or on 
battlefield, and unto Him belonged all the praise and the glory, ' ' God 
has given us a brilliant victory at Harper's Ferry to-day," he wrote 
from the field; "Our Heavenly Father blesses us exceedingly." On 
his camp-bed in the Wilderness hospital, when I read General Lee's 
magnanimous note congratulating him on the victory Jackson had 
won at Chancellorsville, he replied with emotion, ' ' General Lee is 
very kind to me, but he should give the glory to God!" 

How unquestionable was his dependence! As he lifted his hand in 
the morning twilight, riding down to the field of Fredericksburg, he 



said, "I trust our God will give us a great victory to-day, Captain!" 

How immediately came his obedience! A friend in Lexington asked 
him whether he would obey, if the Lord bade him leave the home he 
loved and all that it contained, and go on some mission to Africa. He 
rose and with intense feeling and prompt decision declared, ' ' I would 
go without my hat. ' ' And asked if it were required of him to give up 
the activity and happiness of life, the exquisite happiness of energy, 
and lie on a bed of pain, he said, "I could lie there a thousand years 
without a murmur, if I knew it to be the will of my heavenly Father!" 

I have been accustomed to recall two notable things in the religion 
of Jackson: his belief in the providence of a present God, ruling and 
directing in wisdom, power and goodness in all the affairs of men ; and 
his consequent belief in the right and power of prayer, to Him whose 
ears are always open to the cry of his children, and who is ready to 
hear and answer above all that his children can ask or think. He 
was, as all knew who were at all in touch with his daily life, a man of 
prayer; humble, truthftil, confident prayer, from which he came as 
the saint comes, with unspeakable joy in his heart, and serenity in all 
his face and bearing. 

It is an old jest, that the Puritan could scarcely be said to enjoy his 
religion; but if Jackson were in any sense a puritan, his personal hap- 
piness was unbroken and abiding. The performance of duty was not 
hard, because the fear of the Lord he loved and served was the only 
fear he knew. There was no asceticism in his life, because there was 
no gloom in his heart. " I do rejoice," he said, "to walk in the love 
of God." 

There were not lacking those who neither knew or understood the 
character of Jackson, nor had the most remote conception of the truth 
and power of his religion. If it appeared to any that sternness and 
rigidity marred his character, it was only because in such rare degree 
among men he lived and acted from deep conviction of duty, and that 
was strange to us. Whatever was remarkable about his personal 
bearing, and was sometimes criticised or ridiculed, was due to the 
absolute possession of him the gi'eat things of religion had taken. 

These were the things that Avere the strong iron of his blood; they 
were the constant inspiration of his gentler, simpler life in his Lexington 
home, and as well the animating power of his matchless campaigns 
that have given him undying fame. 

His patriotism was a duty to God. His obedience to the State that 
called him to the field was made clear and plain to him, as obedience 



to God. All soldierly duty was rendered as a service to his God. 
He loved and reverenced the Sabbath day with great ardor; yet on a 
Sabbath morning, he came from his knees in his happy home, turned 
away from the services of the sanctuary he loved, and buckling on 
his sword, took command of the Cadet corps on yonder parade grounds, 
and rang out clear and sharp, his first command in the Civil War, 
' ' Battalion, march !' ' He went without fear, without regret, without 
selfish ambition, to the unknown fortunes of war. Whatever was the 
marvelous development of soldierly qualities, of brilliant generalship, 
whatever the story of campaign and victory, from which he never 
asked a furlough, and from which he never returned, he was the same 
devout and single-hearted servant of the living God. 

Capable of anger and indignation in high degree, he had cultivated 
a self-control that gave him a self-mastery that was sometimes mar- 
velous. An officer of rank came one Sunday afternoon to the little 
office building at Moss Neck to urge his personal application for a 
leave of absence. He violated the guard, and entered General Jack- 
son's private apartment without announcement. Never had I seen 
General Jackson so surprised and then so angry. His face flushed, 
his form grew erect, his hands were clenched behind his back, he 
quivered with the tremendous efl^ort at self-control. And no word was 
permitted to pass his lips until his passion was entirely mastered, when 
he quietly explained wherein the unfortunate colonel was violating all 
rules and all propriety, and sent him to his quarters, the most thor- 
oughly whipped man I ever saw. 

Having strong attachment to the church of which he was a member, 
and positive convictions concerning what he thought was true and 
right, he was yet generous and catholic in his esteem of all other 
churches, and had sincere respect for the views of others. Ruling 
himself with a severe discipline in things he deemed right, he was 
never censorious or dictatorial. He worshipped in all churches alike 
with devoutness and comfort. He encouraged the chaplains of all 
churches, Protestant and Catholic. A Protestant and a Presbyterian 
of Presbyterians, he obtained the appointment of a Catholic priest to a 
chaplaincy. 

In nothing perhaps was the reality and power of his own religion so 
evident as in his interest in the religious welfare of others. AVith an 
unwearying diligence he conducted his Sunday-school for colored peo- 
ple. Visiting at Beverly, of his own volition, he gathered the village 
people to instruct them himself in the truths of religion. He was pro- 



8 

foundly interested in the work of the army cliaplains, and used all his 
great influence and opportunity to sustain tlieni. He was accustomed 
to make individual friends the subject of his earnest and continued 
prayer. He once came walking to the camp of the Rockbridge Artil- 
lery, asking for a certain corporal, and leaving a package for him in 
his absence. It was a matter of intense curiosity in the camp, as per- 
haps containing some handsome gift or unexpected promotion for the 
corporal; who, when he returned to camp, found the package to con- 
tain religious tracts for distribution among his comrades. 

Not at all devoid of humor was the earnest, reticent man. His 
fondness for Gen. J. E. B. Stuart was very great, and the humor and 
frolic of that genial and splendid cavalryman was a source of un- 
bounded delight. Dr. George Junkin, President of Washington Col- 
lege, and father of the first Mrs. Jackson, went back to Pennsylvania, 
at the opening of the war, and wrote a vigorous book on the errors 
into which he believed the South had fallen. He forwarded a copy of 
his book, under a flag of truce, from General Hooker' s headquarters 
to General Lee's. It came to us about the time of the battle of 
Fredericksburg, and when I opened the package, and told our General 
its title, ' * Political Heresies, ' ' he said with a grim smile, ' ' I expect 
it is well named. Captain; that's just what the book contains, ' Politi- 
cal Heresies.' " 

I remember that two young girls in a mansion on the Rappahanock 
were with great earnestness asking for locks of his hair. Blushing 
like a girl himself, he plead that they had so much more hair than he 
had, then that he had grey hairs, and their friends would think he 
was an old man. They protested that he had no grey hair, and was 
not an old man, when he said, ' ' Why, don' t you know the boys call 
me 'Old Jack?'" 

The stern warrior was one of the gentlest of men. He had the ten- 
derest afiection for little children. Little Janie Corbin was a pleasure 
and delight to him in the afternoons of his days of office toil at Moss 
Neck, as she folded paper and cut lines of soldiers and paraded thera 
on his table. He heard from me of her death with an outburst of 
tears and a convulsed frame. 

It was complained by one of his distinguished Generals of division, 
in a severe paper, that ladies, mothers, wives and daughters had in- 
vaded the vicinity of our camps, and were diverting officers and men 
from military duty. When that paper was read to him, Jackson rose 
and paced the room impatiently, and to the request that he would 



9 

order the ladies to retire, he said, " I will do no such thing; I am glad 
my people can have their friends with them; I \\dsh my wife could 
come to see me. ' ' 

No one who ever entered his house or obtained access to his office 
at his corps headquarters can forget the marked courtesy with which 
he was received. His attention was the same to his guest whether he 
was the General commanding, or a private soldier. Your hat was 
taken by his own hands, and his own black stool from the mess-hall of 
this Institute must be your seat while you were his guest. 

Are these the things that mark the gentleman ? Are purity and 
truth, modesty and courtesy the things by which Ave know him ? These 
things he had, not by conventionality, but as the constant expression 
of a gentle nature, and the fruit of religious principle. An English 
gentleman of rank, and of large touch with polite society, at the end 
of a week's sojourn, spent chiefly in General Jackson's room, said, 
"He is a revelation to me; Jackson is the best informed soldier I 
have met in America, and as perfect a gentleman as I have ever 
known!" 

How surpassingly fitting it seems that the two Virginia heroes of 
our civil war should meet again and find their resting place in tombs 
so near; in this retired place among the strong mountains of the State 
they loved so well! How unlike they were in many things, in origin, 
in culture, in family tradition, in the conventionalities of society, and 
in knowledge of the world! How much alike they were in unselfish 
devotion to the same cause, in true and simple piety, and in the gener- 
ous honor that each paid to the other! They who set one over against 
the other, and study to give either one the greater glory of this cam- 
paign or that, do an unworthy violence to their spirit, and are rebuked 
in the presence of their silent tombs. Two lofty peaks, they stand on 
fame's eternal camping-ground, each giving unfading glory to the other. 

How happy and hopeful it is that here the young men of Virginia, 
from mountains and low-lands alike, are to be gathered in growing 
numbers, and to be trained for life under the pervading inspiration of 
names and stories, than which none in all history are more true and 
effulgent in all things pure and lovely and of good report. If any 
young man shall go out from the institutions of Lexington to anything 
in life that is corrupt, or unmanly, or forgetful of the honor of Vir- 
ginia, he will do so against the example and the appeal of Robert E. 
Lee and Stonewall Jackson. 

Ten years of faithful toil Jackson gave to the Virginia Military 



10 

Institute, with difficulties that have not always been well understood. 
Through uncounted years to come his great name will rest upon this 
building as a benediction! The memory of the soldier and his cam- 
paigns and victories will abide in this hall, and the spirit of the honest 
and God-fearing Christian gentleman will come back to speak forever 
of that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and of that 
simple and humble faith which is the sure and only way to enduring 
honor and exaltation. 

In the lowly building at Guinea's Station, where he lay suffering, 
failing, dreaming, passing away, he spoke of a grave ' * in Lexington, 
in the valley of Virginia." And then his thoughts so easily passed 
to another rest, and other shades. 

" What are the thoughts that are stirring his breast? 
What is the mystical vision he sees? 
Let us pass over the river, and rest 
Under the shade of the trees! 

" Caught tlie high psalm of ecstatic delight, 

Heard the harps harping like sounding of seas; 
Saw earth's pure-hearted ones, walking in white. 
Under the shade of the trees. 

" Surely for him it was well — it was best — 
War-worn, yet asking no furlough of ease. 
There to pass over the river, and rest 
Under tlie shade of the trees!" 



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